Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe by Judith Herrin (review)

There are many ways to locate the city of Ravenna. Geographically, it rested at the southern edge of where the wide Po valley met the Adriatic in northern Italy. Politically, it was central to the late Roman empire and its immediate successors in Italy, serving as the capital for both the Ostrogothic kingdom and, for more than two hundred years, the Byzantine exarchate of Italy, before finally being seized by the Lombards (if only temporarily). Into the Middle Ages, this past made the city a desired location on royal itineraries in the age of the Carolingians. Culturally, it was the recipient of imperial and significant local patronage in its late Roman and early Byzantine guises, leading to the constructions of some of the best-preserved churches of the period, resplendent in their glittering mosaics, but was also the site of the production of other more mobile items, exemplified by illuminated Gothic bibles on the one hand, and texts like the anonymous early eighth century Cosmography on the other.

In Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe, Judith Herrin acknowledges the multiple positions of the city, while locating Ravenna as an integral node in a much wider context by connecting its history to the broader transitions from the late Roman world into a differentiated medieval Europe. Despite the broad stokes that this entails, Herrin masterfully ties together the details that make this book compelling. In thirty-seven chapters, neatly subdivided into smaller sections sprinkled with full color plates, she touches on Ravenna's frequently central role in historical events, including the cultural production of the city. Her analysis ultimately showcases the utility of understanding the fortunes of one place as a lens for viewing larger patterns of early medieval history.

While Ravenna's periodization and general scope match Herrin's 1989 The Formation of Christendom, this volume nevertheless represents an entirely different approach in its execution. There is, in fact, nothing quite like this volume. Its focus could make it a fitting companion to Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis's Ravenna in Late Antiquity, which centered on the material and built environment. It nevertheless stands on its own as a way to trace the development of the Mediterranean from the reign of Constantine to that of Charlemagne. Herrin pulls in major figures like Theodoric and Justinian, but is equally adept and weaving in the activities of the Popes, Ravenna's bishops, and its Byzantine Exarchs; religious disputes including Arianism, the Three Chapters Controversy, and Iconoclasm; and even the lives of soldiers, monks, priests, Goths, and the workers of land who appear (often only once) in the church of Ravenna's rich collection of preserved papyri and parchment documents. She also taps into relatively obscure sources to uncover unlikely connections, like the anonymous Cosmographia composed in Ravenna around 700 ce by a scholar who "travelled" through the literature that was on hand, revealing the now-lost books and maps available during these so-called "dark ages."

Designed for a more general readership, Ravenna would serve as an ideal a book for the classroom, perhaps in some version of a course on a long Late Antiquity or the parallel early medieval version, "From Constantine to Charlemagne." With its clear organization, short chapters, and chronological breadth, Ravenna stands as a central point of balance between more traditional narratives of the early Middle Ages in the "West," and narratives that encompass a wider, multi-cultural perspective on Late Antiquity and highlight the contributions of the Byzantine Empire to this history. More broadly speaking, as a history of the Mediterranean and ultimately centered on the transition between "modes" of antiquity and those of the Middle Ages, Herrin's work here is satisfying in its elasticity, moving its focus from one tightly bound to the confines of Ravenna to a much wider field of vision to relate how major political and cultural changes rippled through the sea.

As of the writing of this review, Ravenna has...